​On a quiet street in Detroit, light pours into the back windows of the Kirksey home. In the back of the house the walls are lined with textbooks, workbooks and multicultural children's books. It's a home — but it's also a classroom.

Brandon, 8, is wearing pajamas and a paper crown from Burger King. He heads into the back room and pulls a large laminated world map off the bookshelf.

"This is the whole entire map! Michigan," he says enthusiastically pointing to his home state. His two siblings, Zachary, 3, and Ariyah, 1, echo him.

Their mother and teacher, Camille Kirksey, ushers them into the dining room. Sitting among bowls of fruit and stacks of books, the kids figure out the date and the weather.

This is a typical start to Brandon's school day. Today's agenda: poetry recitation. Then, it's time for reading and math. Fridays are reserved for science experiments and field trips.

Brandon is part of a distinct subgroup of the U.S. home-schooling population: African-Americans.

"Black home-schooling is definitely on the rise," says Ama Mazama, a professor of African-American studies at Temple University.

Hundreds of families in Tulsa are choosing to home school their children instead of sending them to public schools.Lindsay Elliot and her husband were both home schooled. Now they've decided to keep the tradition going with their three daughters, ages six through nine."This day and age, it's so easy to home school because there are so many opportunities," said Elliot.....

The New York Times published an article last week about how handwriting (and even cursive) may help children's brains develop in ways we don't fully understand. Forming a letter freehand activates areas of the brain that are not stimulated by merely tracing or typing a letter on a keyboard.